Morwen of Lossarnach was no woman of sentiment. Queen, queen mother, she was the steel at the heart of the Golden Hall.

But Morwen loved – fiercely, sternly – and the sight of her daughter’s orphans pierced her heart. The boy she left to his uncle and cousin. Sun-kissed, elder – there is always an abundance of feeling for such children. The little girl she claimed as hers, took to her – to temper and to fashion, to love and to shield. She forged an enduring bond, and when the girl became a woman, she could not help but love the south. Fiercely, sternly.